


A Place Where Lovers Go

by louvie (shingeki_on_feelings)



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Arguing, Break Up, Breaking Up & Making Up, Canon Divergence, Crying, Decisions, Dream Smp, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, Kissing, M/M, Making Up, Polyamorous Character, Polyamory, Post-Manberg-Pogtopia War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Redemption, There's A Tag For That, basically the dream team is in a relationship, no beta we die like men, no beta we die like wilbur soot, war resolvement, why. why is there a tag for that. I hate this site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28237947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shingeki_on_feelings/pseuds/louvie
Summary: Dream gets a harsh reminder that there are people on his side other than himself.Or, people who were on his side.He needs to make a choice on what really matters to him."'We're leaving, Dream,' Sapnap says. 'Me and George. We’ve had enough.'"
Relationships: Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF), GeorgeNotFound/Sapnap (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 40
Kudos: 662





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> obligatory this is roleplay, don't harass the creators, this is all for fun message. 
> 
> the dream team has explicitly stated that they are okay with people shipping them. if that ever changes, this fic is coming down faster than you can say "it was never meant to be." As an aromantic person, I view their relationship here on some sort of queerplatonic spectrum. I in no way want Dream, George and Sapnap to get together in the real world, I simply enjoy exploring their dynamic and playing with their characters and relationships. It is all fiction. remember to be respectful. 
> 
> also, according to ao3’s statistics only a small percentage of people that read my fics actually leave kudos, so if you end up enjoying this fic, consider leaving a kudos, it’s free and you can't actually unkudos but if you regret it that much then you can leave a hate comment. 
> 
> Enjoy the pain.

It’s quiet in the castle at this time of night. Everyone else, including Eret, is asleep, meaning that Dream doesn’t have to worry about showing his face as he wanders around the large halls of the palace. He walks with his mask off, the white thing hung at his belt, with no particular goal in mind for the moment. 

Dream stops at the main entrance hall and looks around. The flamingos from Eret’s first reign are long gone, and Dream doesn’t know yet if Eret plans on replacing them. He hopes they don’t. Dream is fairly certain that the birds were built by a member of New L’Manburg, and if he sees them again, he would be inclined to believe that Eret would be working with a spy. That simply wouldn’t do. 

Dream turns out of his thoughts at the sound of the door opening. He can say he’s slightly surprised at who it is. “Sapnap,” he addresses from the middle of the foyer.

“Dream,” Sapnap replies grimly from the entrance. He closes the large door behind him. 

“What are you doing here?” Dream asks. It’s a genuine question. Ever since he revoked George’s title as king of Essempi, George and Sapnap had been completely avoiding Eret’s castle, which happened to be where Dream tended to spend most of his time lately. It couldn’t be helped; things had to get done, and the castle was the best place to take on the issue that was L’Manburg and the citizens in it. It wasn’t his fault that it meant he hadn’t gone home in a while. He was just busy. 

“I could ask you the same thing,” Sapnap retorts. After closing the door, he decides to lean back on it, crossing his ankles and arms in a slouched, casual but guarded position. Ah. So something was wrong, then. “You’ve been in here for weeks. There’s no way you actually have something to do anymore here.”

Dream sighs. He had a feeling this conversation would come soon. “I’ve been busy, Sapnap. L’Manburg is a slippery thing, you know that. If measures aren’t taken, they’ll wiggle right out of under my thumb.” 

“... How many measures, though?” Sapnap says quietly. “You haven’t spoken to anyone for a long time.” 

Dream gets what he’s alluding to. He huffs, frustrated with the current situation and people trying to challenge him, whether it be a liability in the opposing government or a lover trying to monitor what he does with his time. “If it bothers you so much, you two can come here to talk.”

Sapnap’s expression immediately darkens. Oh. Now that it’s out of his mouth, Dream realizes the implications of what he just said. Well, whatever, every relationship has miscommunications every now and then, right?

“I’m here to tell you something,” Sapnap practically growls. Oh, great, he’s even changing the subject already. That’s, that’s great. He still looks angry, though, but Sapnap’s always had a simmering, mellow aggression in him. It wasn’t a threat. 

Dream raises an eyebrow, and distantly wonders when he started referring to his partner as a threat. 

“We’re leaving, Dream,” Sapnap says. “Me and George. We’ve had enough.”

Dream stares. “What?” 

_“Leaving,_ Dream,” he spits, with more force and anger under it this time. “We’re leaving you. We’re leaving this place. It’s been hell with you here lately. We’re done. We’re not gonna be your little pawns aymore.”

“You’re leaving.” Dream echoes more than asks, before he _processes_ , then with a flash of indignance: _“Leaving?!_ Yeah, no. You can’t _leave.”_

“We weren't asking,” Sapnap fires back. “Be glad that I had the fucking courtesy to tell you at all. George just wanted to disappear in the middle of the night without telling anyone!”

“You can’t just leave!” Dream yells again. “You guys are meant to stay at my side. You belong here, with me! This is your home! _I’m_ your home!” 

“It was, until you went batshit insane about L’Manburg and the fucking discs! We’re done! We’re taking each other and fucking leaving this hellhole!”

“‘Taking each other?’ What does that even mean?! You’re mine!”

_“We were yours!”_ Sapnap screams. His voice is broken and grated, echoing in the newfound silence they’ve created. He’s panting, adrenaline making his fists clench like Dream knows it does, and his throat bobbes as he swallows down a sob. He inhales, and when he speaks, his voice is wet. 

“We were yours because we loved you, Dream, and you loved us. We, we shared a house, we shared a purpose, we shared a fucking relationship for God’s sake and we were ha-happy.” Sapnap pauses again. He takes another breath, and this time, his voice is more firm. “We were together. Whatever we did, we did as a team because we loved each other. But then the wars happened, and that was fine, until you didn’t come down. You wouldn’t come down, Dream, you wouldn’t come back to us.” 

Dream wants to look away, perhaps in shame, perhaps in denial. “L’Manburg needed taming,” he tries. 

“Sure,” says Sapnap, “but not at the cost of losing you. And that’s what happened. Every single time, every _single_ conflict that happened on this fucking server, you were getting involved in. Not even for a good reason, either— you wanted power! You still want power! You—” Sapnap stutters. “You held your axe to my neck, Dream, and gave away my most prized possession, to _Tommy_ of all people! The one I was fighting! And for what?”

He quickly walks up to get in Dream’s space, pointing his finger directly on Dream’s chest. “For what, Dream! So you could fight with Technoblade for a little while? Did giving Mars away and burning the tower make you feel good?”

Dream closes his eyes. He wants Sap to stop. 

“And George! You made him king, and we got so hopeful, we thought that you were coming around, but then you went and took it away days later.” Sapnap’s eyes shine bright with tears unshed in the torchlight. “He cried all night long that day, you know. Not about the crown, but because you _used_ him. We thought you were becoming _normal_ again, that we could be _happy_ again, but then you went and used us to start another fucking war and immediately took it away. I had to hold him and _lie_ to him, lie to _myself_ , and say that you still loved us.” Sapnap chuckles sadly. “But you wouldn’t know that, of course. Since you never come to bed anymore.”

Dream keeps his eyes squeezed shut. “I do love you two,” he tries. 

“No, you don’t.” Sapnap’s quiet now, seemingly as drained as Dream is. “You don’t care about us. You said so yourself. ‘The only thing I care about is your discs, Tommy.’’”

Dream rushes to refute that. “That’s not what I meant, you know that—”

“Save it. You’re a lost cause, Dream, and George and I are done with it. We don’t deserve someone who doesn’t care.” He takes a step back. 

“Sapnap—”

“Goodbye, Dream.”

Without thinking, mind jumbled with the influence of panic, Dream reaches out to grab Sapnap’s arm before he can get too far away and pulls him back into him. Sapnap makes a noise of protest as he gets whipped around, but any further dissent dies in his throat as he notices their proximity. 

He doesn’t look Dream in the eye. Sapnap keeps his gaze down, eyes stubbornly glued to Dream’s chest, even as Dream takes hold of his chin with his free hand. It hurts, how gentle his touch is, it spears Sapnap to his very core, how Dream’s thumb rubbing along his jawline reminds him of simpler times. Times when their greatest worries were if they had enough bricks for the house they were building, or how they should decorate the bridge outside of it. 

Sapnap doesn’t lean away when Dream’s face draws closer to his. In fact, his eyes flutter shut once their lips meet, turning his head into the kiss. Sapnap wants to hate Dream for this, he wants to hate Dream for making the moment so soft, he wants to hate him for not being able to share it with George too. It’s gentle and familiar, like so many other kisses they’ve shared in the past, so Sapnap lets himself fall into the wonderful feeling of lips moving together and lets it convince him that Dream loves him, perhaps for the last time. 

Without breaking the kiss, Sapnap moves the hand that Dream isn’t holding and tenderly grips the wrist holding his chin. Dream moves in kind, releasing Sapnap’s arm to hold his waist and deepen the kiss as Sapnap places his now free hand on the back of his lover’s neck. They don’t move except for the slow, practiced give and take of their mouths, staying together and breathing each other in for a long time. Neither know how long it’s been when Sapnap finally pulls away, his lips shiny and pink. They don’t completely part yet, but spend another long moment gazing at each other from inches away, their eyes holding more pain and unspoken words that they can’t speak at this point. 

Dream rubs his thumb up Sapnap’s cheekbone. Sapnap closes his eyes and doesn’t lean into the touch like he would have before, but he doesn’t pull away from it either. 

“Stay,” Dream whispers, desperately, demandingly. Sapnap keeps his eyes closed, bathing in Dream’s want, his desire for his loved ones to remain at his side. God, how he wants to stay. How Sapnap wants for Dream to quit this entire mess, to calm down and focus his attention on Sapnap and George, how he wants for Dream to let them love him. His heart aches for them to be together, truly together, again. 

Sapnap pulls out of Dream’s grasp, a rejection Dream doesn’t know if he’s heartbroken by or proud of. Both, probably. Sapnap has never been one to bend easily, a trait that Dream loves him for. The heartache makes itself more known, however, when Dream watches his lover turn away and walk towards the door of the castle. Not a single word is uttered among the soft tapping of footsteps, the only other sound being the deep creaking of the door as it opens. 

Sapnap wipes his eyes, and turns to Dream one last time. 

“Think about your priorities and their consequences, Dream. Stew in it. You’ve already decided what matters.” 

The door slams shut, and Dream is alone again, staring after the man who carried the scattered pieces of his very soul. 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you tell i wrote from the yelling scene on and had to bullshit my way through the intro


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yeahhhh 3.6k word update pog

George and Sapnap are gone. 

Their absence in Essempi and L’Manburg is there in the obvious ways. They’re just not around. No goggles or bandana-wearing soldiers in sight, as far as the land stretches. The sting of it all really sits in the smaller things, though. Work on El Rapids slows considerably, and with Quackity being preoccupied with his cabinet position, it eventually slows to a complete halt soon enough. Citizens of both nations are more often than not finding that there are no flint and steel kits nearby when needed, now that the person who made them most often and left them everywhere has disappeared without a trace. People retire for the night and wake up to the pictures of George plastered around town having been taken down and left to crumple on the streets. 

No one really has the will to put them back up. They all know who it is that takes them down. No one says anything about it, just cleans it up before the litter has a chance to build up. 

Everyone would have thought that Dream was gone as well if Eret hadn’t visited one day and informed L’Manburg that Dream hadn't left the castle. He was sulking, they speculated, because one night they had heard shouting from downstairs and the next day the two were gone. L’Manburg thought on it, agreed, but otherwise didn’t dwell on it and eventually sent Eret on their way. 

If Dream was on his own in the castle, on Essempi lands, that meant he wasn’t harassing L’Manburg, and that was something they all wanted. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

* * *

Dream doesn’t remember the last time he was outside. It’s only been a few days since they left, but he wasn’t going out much beforehand, so what did that really matter, anyways?

Theoretically, he still has much to do in the castle. His feud with L’Manburg isn’t even _close_ to being finished and more bullshit statements of territory rules need to be drafted and sent. Not to mention, he should probably visit Tommy soon and monitor his progress in exile. There's a message from Bad waiting for him as well, something about eggs and vines?

He doesn’t bother with any of it. The bright colors of the rainbow windows hurt his eyes. 

The past few days have been… hard. It’s hard to think of anything other than George and Sapnap, hard to focus on anything other than the gaping feeling of miserable emptiness he feels in his chest. 

They say you never appreciate something until it’s gone. Only now he really understands the sting of lonely silence around him, no laughing or singing or bickering to cut through it anymore. The quiet makes too much noise for him to think, and as Dream clutches a quill and stares at the empty page in front of him, he longs for the background noise he would always take for granted to return. 

They also say that it’s lonely at the top. The space around him, more so the lack of others around him, is both suffocating and uncomfortably vast. The barbs of the feather squish down in his clenched grasp. 

He… He didn’t appreciate them, apparently, and now they’re gone. 

_You’ve already decided what matters._

What _did_ matter to him? The discs mattered, obviously, but only because Tommy cared about them and having leverage over the discs meant having Tommy strung on threads tied to Dream’s fingertips. So it wasn’t the discs, really, as much as it was having the largest threat Dream knew of in the land on a leash. 

But… What was Tommy actually a threat to other than Dream’s lifestyle and the people he cared about? 

If George was here, he would say that Dream was overthinking again. He would walk up behind him, wrap his arms around his shoulders and kiss Dream’s cheek until Dream had no choice but to get out of his own head. 

Dream throws the quill across the table, swearing angrily at himself after it very unsatisfyingly floats to a stop. 

He did this for them. _Everything_ he did had been for them, for the three of them. Why couldn’t they see that? Tommy had burned George’s house, stolen from it, and Dream made him face the consequences. And if Dream hadn’t followed through with his side of the contract during the battle of the lake, Technoblade would have done much worse to them all. Couldn’t they see the bigger picture?

(The bigger picture that overshadowed how George had fixed his house in mere minutes, feeling, at the worst, annoyed with Tommy. The bigger picture that painted over Sapnap’s heartbroken expression when he spotted his lover fighting alongside his opponent. The bigger picture that didn’t _need_ for Dream to give Mars up, or to use “King George” as a threat to Eret, but still let it happen.)

Dream sighs, putting his head in his hands. Okay. Maybe he _has_ gone a bit too far in the past. The power over the land’s governments, the intricate web of connections and threats, taking each detail from every encounter and planning how he could use it against someone— He supposes he may have gotten too caught up in it all. The puppeteer getting tangled in his marionettes’ threads; how ironic. 

Dream takes a few terse breaths and presses the palms of his hands into his eyes. Okay. Okay. Things can’t stay the way they are. He’s miserable, he can’t get anything done, and they’re _gone,_ so something has to change. _Come on, Speedrunner._ Make a plan, execute it. 

But first he needs to decide whether the discs are more important than Sapnap and George. Dream hates that it’s even an idea that he has to dwell on. No matter how sharply Sapnap accuses him, he _does_ care about them, deeply. Sap and George have always been there, proudly at his side, since before they even founded Essempi. They were together before the beginning, before any discs had even been obtained, sworn to each other and to the love they shared. Whatever they did was done as a team, for the benefit of each other; Dream remembers it well and with overwhelming, tragic fondness. 

And the discs, Tommy and Tubbo, Wilbur, L’Manburg, Schlatt, wars and elections and politics— that came after. It came after and tore Dream away, tore their family apart so viciously that Dream’s lovers couldn’t even recognize him anymore. It had made it hard to recognize himself, if Dream was being honest, because now he didn’t know where his mask ended and the real him began. 

It’s fucking miserable, Dream realizes, right here and now. It’s exhausting, having an eye on every aspect of everyone’s lives all the time, and it’s miserable. It’s _miserable._

Dream stands up, abandoning the still-blank page in front of him. 

The discs, he can live without. He can relearn how to function without complete control. Perhaps if he could do it before, he could figure out how to do it again. 

But not like this. Not without his family by his side. 

Dream’s made his choice. 

* * *

No one really knows what all happened in the time that Sapnap and George were gone. Only that small changes started happening, under their noses at first, and more significant gestures happening as time went on. 

The first few days were silent, of course. Dream was alone and in solitude, and for once the rest of the server was at peace, a nice change of pace from the constant glass tightrope the governments were always walking. 

By the end of the first week, the daunting obsidian walls were completely torn down and the wooden paths repaired. It was supposedly a mystery of who did, it— No one was actually seen mining away for hours on end to make the horrid things finally crumble, but for the government and the ones really looking, it was obvious. No one complained; Dream had taken down the walls like he said he would if Tommy was exiled. His end of the bargain was swift and efficient, just how he liked it to be, and although L’Manburg was still distraught over the absence of its young founder, a clearer view of the rest of the land had brought a little cheer into everyone’s hearts. 

The second week, President Tubbo opens the door to his office that morning and sees a letter addressed to him on his desk. 

“What is it?” Quackity asks when he arrives and spots Tubbo staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed at the letter in hand. Fundy leans over his desk on the other side of the room and raises an eyebrow at them in interest. 

“Oh my god…” Tubbo mutters, rereading the words over and over again. “L’Manburg. L’Manburg’s a nation.”

Fundy and Quackity look at each other. “Duh,” scoffs Fundy. 

“No, no, I mean,” Tubbo stops, speechless. He suddenly laughs in pure glee, a sound they haven’t heard for far too long. “We’re a nation! Officially! Here, Dream says _‘Hence the government of L’Manburg will be recognized as a nation equal to that of Essempi.’_ A nation! An actual, official nation! Dream sees us as a nation!” Tubbo laughs, jumping up and down in place. 

“You’re joking. You’re fucking kidding me.” Quackity quickly swipes the letter from Tubbo’s hand and reads parts of it out loud. _“‘...a democratic nation entitled to independence… equal to that of Essempi… agreement to the following peace treaties… Signed by King Eret and Dream!’_ Holy fuck!” He slaps a hand over his mouth. “We did it! We actually did it!”

“Holy shit, we did!” Fundy chimes in from where he’s looking over Quackity’s shoulder. 

“Oh my god,” Tubbo repeats. He grows somber the next moment, however. “I wish… I wish Tommy were here to see this. He’d be over the moon.”

The rest bow their heads and quietly agree, but the notion is not pondered over too long before the cabinet members rush out the office door to spread the good news. 

The third week, unbeknownst to L’Manburg, Dream ventures out beyond the borders of any populated land and keeps going until he spots a certain shore on the horizon. It has the same rickety chairs, table and hastily made umbrella that were there since the last time Dream visited. As Dream slows the boat into shallow waters, he sees a lone figure sitting hunched over themself outside of a humble white tent. The figure gets up once they spot him approaching. 

Dream’s boat hits the sand and Tommy’s there to meet him. “Dream,” he says, his voice tired and lackluster and scratchy from lack of use. Dream looks at him, really looks at Tommy for the first time in a long, long while, and sees something different this time. 

Where Dream used to see a nuisance, a loudmouth thorn in his side who wouldn’t stop poking around where he shouldn’t, now stands a boy with bags under his eyes that are too dark for someone his age. His eyes, previously a bright blue, have dulled to an unsettling navy color and his hair is overgrown and tangled. His clothes are ripped, his hands are dirty, and Dream is pretty sure the kid’s missing a shoe. 

And he really was just a kid, wasn’t he? Why has it taken Dream so long to see that?

…Maybe Sapnap was right when he said that Dream wouldn’t come down. Maybe… he needed to finally come down. 

Tommy starts to take his armor off, scuffing the sand with his one shoe to make a divot for his items to fall in. He pauses only when Dream holds a hand out and commands a surprisingly soft _“Stop.”_

“ …Dream?” Tommy asks, carefully. He doesn’t dare look away, but doesn’t exactly look him in the eye, either. 

Dream puts his hand down. “Get your things,” he says, offering no further explanation.

  
  
Tommy waits, he waits for the other shoe to drop, for Dream to say that he can’t stay in Logstedshire anymore because of some bullshit reason, but nothing comes. He obliges, running back to his tent to grab the most important things out of the little he still has. He leaves Ghostbur’s things; his brother can always come back to get them if they’re that important. 

Dream doesn’t say a word when Tommy comes back, only getting back in the boat and motioning for Tommy to follow. He doesn’t speak as they row across the sea, doesn’t offer a single syllable of explanation when the docks of L’Manburg appear on the horizon. 

Dream jumps onto the dock. He’s still eerily silent as he reaches out to help Tommy up as well. 

Tommy doesn’t let go once he’s up. “Dream,” he asks without asking. As ready as he is to break down at the prospect of being back home, _finally,_ he knows better. He’s had to learn. This can’t be right. Perhaps Dream is tricking him somehow, and no matter how tired of this stupid world he is, Tommy’s not planning on going down quietly to the bastard. 

Dream still doesn’t answer, though, he barely even acknowledges Tommy, instead beginning to walk towards where Tommy knows the new whitehouse is. He doesn’t respond, he doesn’t so much as turn around to see if Tommy’s even following, but he’s not reaching for his axe so Tommy supposes he should be grateful and follows. 

It turns out the rest of L’Manburg is as confused as Tommy is. Citizens stop what they are doing in front of their homes to watch him practically be escorted to the whitehouse with wide eyes and curious stares. Tommy looks around at everything, taking note of all that had changed in his absence: the crater that Wil had made so long ago was now filled with water, and the walls had been taken down. The approaching of winter had dusted some parts of the land with snow that hadn’t melted yet. It was different, but in a way that inspired ideas of new beginnings and such; Tubbo had done a good job. 

Speaking of Tubbo, he and the rest of the cabinet had stepped outside the whitehouse door to greet Dream and Tommy, all with surprise painted on their expressions. Tubbo even looks like he’s about to cry, and Tommy notices with a pang in his heart that the president has a brand new enchanted compass hanging from his neck. If Tommy is being honest, he feels himself begin to tear up too. 

No one speaks, not knowing what’s happening or what Dream wants. Surely he hasn’t brought Tommy all this way just to kill him in front of his friends, that would be too cruel even for him, but the only other option would be… 

Dream puts his hand on Tommy’s shoulder and gently pushes him forward. Tommy’s footsteps on the planks as he stumbles forward sounds deafening in the tense air. 

Tommy whips around to look at Dream. “…You mean…” he mumbles, voice high and trembling. 

Dream’s mask stares back at him. 

Slowly, Tommy’s face splits into the largest smile Dream has seen on him in weeks. He laughs and shoots himself at Tubbo, who’s ready to catch him with open arms. 

“I’m back!” Tommy shouts as Tubbo squeezes him tight and starts sobbing into his shoulder. “I’m back! Thank you, Dream, oh god, thank you!”

Dream sees them, the two boys who cared about each other more than anything, and leaves not a moment after. 

A day later, the cabinet walks into the whitehouse to find a small chest on Tubbo’s desk, exactly where they found the letter a few days ago. They all crowd around Tubbo as he shoos them far enough away for the president to actually open the box. 

Tommy’s the first one to recognize the contents inside. It’s his disc, after all, so if anyone were to gasp at the realization that his most prized possessions were completely back in his hands, it would be him. The others follow suit with gasps of their own as they one by one recognize the bright greens of Cat inside the box. In disbelief, Tommy reaches into the chest and carefully grips the disc around the edges, bringing it close to his face. 

The moment is broken by Tubbo tackling him, followed by Quackity and Fundy. They’re laughing, shouting incoherent cheers of victory and elation, meanwhile Tommy is still frozen in shock with his prize in his hands. He can’t believe it. He has both of his discs. This means—

“It’s over!” Tubbo cries. Tommy looks to where he’s glued himself to his side. Tubbo’s grinning so wide, a sight Tommy missed so, so much. Between all the wars and exiles, they had to grow up too fast to be able to smile like that as often as they should have. “All of it, Tommy! The wars, the blackmail, it's all over! You have your discs back!”

Tommy huffs an incredulous, disbelieving laugh, once, twice, then breaks out into unbridled exhilaration. 

“We did it!” He yells, and Quackity and Fundy hug him tight with hair ruffles and congratulations to follow. 

Outside the whitehouse, Dream stands on a hill and watches the scene unfold from through a window. He leaves before they have the chance to come outside and spot him. 

At the end of the month, two figures appear on the outskirts of Essempi, looking all the world like they were coming home. 

No one really knows who spotted them first or what direction they came from, only that one day the citizens of the surrounding lands look to the Prime Path and find Sapnap and George walking along it. They turn heads, most definitely— the two hadn’t been seen for weeks, gone without a trace— but no one stops them as they make their way down the path, their hands clasped tightly together between them. It seems that the unspoken knowledge of their destination is something everyone knows. 

There’s people milling about outside the Pride Palace when they arrive, tending to the bamboo or harvesting sugarcane and whatnot. They, too, pause in their activities to watch the two cross the bridge from the community house and stop at the first entrance arch. Many of the citizens quietly gasp as they look up to see what has caught their attention. 

There, at the top of the staircase leading to the castle, the infamous Dream stands bare-faced and open, mask nowhere to be found. A moment is spared as Dream looks down to George and Sapnap, as they stare up back at him. No one moves. No one breathes. 

Then George takes off running, Sapnap moving half a second after him up the stairs. Dream flies into motion in the same moment, taking the steps three at a time until they meet in the middle of the stairway bridge and all fall to their knees. 

Dream collapses into them and in the next moment he’s crying, face buried in the junction of George’s neck as he clings to the ones he loves more than anything. Sapnap grips Dream right back, pulling him impossibly closer and pressing his nose into Dream’s hair. George squeezes his eyes shut and holds onto Dream with a white-knuckled grip on his shirt while he sobs. George’s goggles are askew, Dream’s probably getting bruises from how hard he’s being held, and all their cheeks are wet with tears, but none of them care. They finally have each other again. 

“I’m s-sorry,” are the first words spoken, by Dream. He can barely get them out with how violently his voice is trembling, but George and Sapnap know him well enough to understand. “I’m _sorry._ I’m sorry I’m sorry I love you s-so much,” he stutters, to which Sapnap and George gently shush him. “I love you, I love you, _please._ I’m sorry.”

“We know. We know, Dream,” George hushes him and puts his hand on the back of Dream’s neck comfortingly. 

“It’ll be alright,” Sapnap whispers hoarsely. He moves his hand up and down Dream’s back, both of them finding solace in the motion. “We love you. We love you so much, Dream. We’ll be alright.” 

“I’ll come down, I promise.” Dream’s words are muffled by George’s neck, but his oath is heard loud and clear. George’s throat makes a sound that sounds like a barely suppressed sob. Sapnap exhales wetly into Dream’s hair. Despite their tears, the declaration is met with unbelievable relief and joy. “I’ll come back to you. I’ll come back. Please, let me come back.” 

George gives in, his shoulder shaking as he bawls. Sapnap holds them both tight and doesn’t dare let go. “Okay,” he breathes, because he doesn’t know if Dream will accept it if he says that he already has. From what they’ve heard, from what they’ve _seen,_ Dream was already right back where he needed to be. “We missed you so much.”

Dream cries in relief. He missed them, too. But he did good. He did well enough that they came _back_. They came back and they love him and missed him and would let him prove himself. He was going to be forgiven— maybe not today, but someday, and that's all Dream needs right now. 

Despite the grief and weeping between the three, despite the unspoken anger and hurt they all share, their hearts begin to mend in that moment. Yes, their love is bruised and painful, but bruises heal and so will they. They will learn to forgive and they will learn to move on; they’ll learn to love as one again and to exist in harmony. 

For right now, though, they were finally together, and that would be enough for today. 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading :)
> 
> leave a kudos or comment if you enjoyed! have a wonderful day💕


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